NATO

Prime ministers from the Visegrad group (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) have adopted a common paper calling for fair representation of the new member states in the European External Action Service (EEAS) architecture, Ambassador Ivan Korčok, permanent representative of Slovakia to the EU. READ MORE

Just in a month we will celebrate the anniversary of the Second World War ending. There are millions of people in the world, who participated in the battles of the middle of previous century. But the difference between the history and modernity, as a former US Vice-President Walter Mondale noted wittily, is that “there will be no veterans of the third world war”. READ MORE

The Ukrainian president has dissolved the commission which was to work towards NATO membership. It's the latest move to abandon the pro-western stance of the 'Orange Revolution' and re-establish ties with Russia. READ MORE

In this era of commerce and trade, it often happens that countries that might once have gone to war play out their antagonisms through other means. The immigration debate plays this role in Mexican American relations. For a time, the trade dispute over soft wood lumber (yes, really) fulfilled this function in Canadian American relations: At stake were different attitudes toward the role of government in industry, Canada's sensitivity to American economic power and many other issues, though you wouldn't know it if you weren't paying attention. READ MORE

Extension of contacts between official bodies in Minsk and Vilnius creates favorable conditions for the development of Belarusian-Lithuanian cooperation. But disagreements on a number of political issues still exist. READ MORE

On March 18, in Moscow, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Secretary-General, Nikolay Bordyuzha, signed a declaration on cooperation between the two secretariats. The document, and the UN’s steps preceding it, can be interpreted as UN recognition of this Russian-led bloc in the “post-Soviet space.” The Russian side will doubtlessly construe the UN’s blessing as a full and unambiguous recognition of the CSTO (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). READ MORE

On March 27 new Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis began a three-day official visit to Tbilisi. On Saturday he met Georgian Parliament Speaker Davit Bakradze and discussed the further intensification of the relations between the two countries in various international formats and the participation of Lithuanian observers at the forthcoming Georgian local elections. READ MORE

Despite the impact of the global economic crisis on all of the economies within the former Soviet Union, averaging a 7 percent decline in GDP in 2009, defense spending has increased in each state with the exception of Belarus (which remained unchanged in 2009 year-on-year at 1.5 percent of GDP). Defense spending, according to an extensive analysis in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, witnessed the sharpest increase in Georgia (4.56 percent of GDP), Armenia (4.07 percent) and Azerbaijan (3.95 percent). In the case of Armenia, this level of defense expenditure proved surprising in the context of its 15 percent decline in GDP in 2009. READ MORE

Austria is known to each Kazakhstani not only as the OSCE headquarters location and one of the most beautiful European landscapes, but first of all as the state rich in cultural traditions and historical heritage, the motherland of prominent rulers, scientists, philosophers and composers. Modern Austria is one of the most developed European states possessing significant international reputation, powerful production, scientific-technological, innovative and investment capacities. READ MORE

The European Commission's new strategy for growth and jobs is on the ropes after EU leaders failed to agree hard targets on education and poverty – two of the five headline goals set out in the original proposal. READ MORE